1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of medicine. More particularly, it concerns pharmaceutical compositions for treating autoimmune and inflammatory disorders and modifying immune responses.
2. Description of Related Art
Autoimmune diseases and some inflammatory disorders arise from an abnormal immune response of the body against substances and tissues normally present in the body (autoimmunity or auto-inflammatory). This may be restricted to certain organs (e.g. in autoimmune thyroiditis) or involve a particular tissue in different places (e.g. Goodpasture's disease which may affect the basement membrane in both the lung and the kidney). Autoimmune diseases affect up to 50 million people in America alone, and the cause of autoimmunity remains unknown. Furthermore, there are many inflammatory diseases that are not associated with autoimmunity and may be idiopathic or associated with a chronic or acute disorder.
The treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases is typically with immunosuppression or anti-inflammatants—medication that decreases the immune and/or inflammation response. Conventional immunotherapies using immunosuppressants, such as cyclosporine, tacroliums, methotrexate or anti-TNFa/IL-6 non-specifically suppress the function of T cell including non-pathogenic T cells in the host. Therefore, treatment with these immunosuppressants often results in the development of severe infections and sometimes leads to the lethal consequences. There is a need in the art for therapeutics that treat autoimmune and/or inflammatory responses without global immunosuppression.